A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 81

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1156

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio > Part 81

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Short now bought the Franklin Machine Works, of Columbus, which after three years' successful operation he sold to a stock company. He then bought twenty-eight hundred acres of timber land on the Ohio river, near Vanceburg, Lewis county, Kentucky, and, going to Cleveland, contracted to deliver to the Standard Oil Company one million staves for thirty-two thou- sand dollars. While filling this contract he put on the market fifty thousand feet of poplar lumber for chair bottoms, and a large amount of car lumber and a good quantity of wagon stuff which he sold in Chicago, and during the same time he opened a freestone quarry on his land and took out and sold to the United States government, for the old Chicago postoffice, six hundred and seventy-three blocks averaging fifty-one and one-half cubic feet, at sixty cents a foot for the first quality and fifty cents a foot for the second quality, delivered at Cincinnati, Ohio. He bought a steamboat to transport his own freight and carried passengers as well.

Now Mr. Short engaged in a successful real estate speculation at Vance- burg, buying six hundred and fifty acres at different points around and adjacent to the city. He had already had some satisfactory real estate experience at Columbus. He remembers well the old wooden depot of forty 42

666

CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

years ago where he had his first office, and the railroad shop just north. A't that time and for years after, where the High street viaduct now stands and all the country north and west of it was woods and corn-fields, Neil and Dennison owned the ground, but about that time platted and sold it in lots at from three hundred to three hundred and fifty dollars each. The lots sold rapidly and were soon disposed of. The strip of ground west of the viaduct, between High and Park streets, was purchased by the railroad company, now the Panhandle road, for ten thousand dollars. From the railroads to the market house was the old cemetery, every vestige of which disappeared many years ago. Still north of the Capital University, now known as the Park Hotel, on the east side of High street were corn-fields owned by William A. Neil. This land was platted by the owner and Mr. Short sold the lots to railroaders, principally, at from three hundred and fifty to four hundred dol- lars a lot. The land north of Russell street, east of High, was owned by William A. Gill. The tract was platted into lots and Mr. Short sold them at six hundred dollars for corner lots, five hundred and fifty for inside and three hundred and seventy-five to four hundred for rear lots. This was about 1856. Lots as far north as Fourth avenue brought less. The land on the west side of High street as far north as First avenue was owned by William A. Gill, but was afterward purchased by William B. Hubbard and was known as the Hubbard estate. North and west of First avenue was what was known as the Starr farm, which was sold in four and five-acre tracts, afterwards subdivided and sold in small lots. The land between Fourth and Fifth avenues on the east side of High street was owned by William G. Deshler and was laid out into acre lots and sold by Mr. Short at from five hundred to eight hundred dollars each.

Just north of Fifth avenue on the same side of the street Mr. Short pur- chased from William A. Neil a four-acre tract for twenty-five hundred dol- lars. Here Mr. Short built a residence and lived for twenty-seven and one- half years. Shortly after his purchase, however, he sold one-third of this' tract to Charles Shewery for twelve hundred dollars. That was in 1858. In 1883, twenty-seven years afterward, he sold his homestead to D. E. Sulli- van for twenty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Sullivan erected three brick houses on the rear lots and was shortly afterward offered eighty-one thousand dollars for the property and later has refused one hundred and forty thousand dollars for it. In the rear of the Short homestead was seventy-one acres which an old gentleman named John Hyer, who resided in the east, pur- chased for fifteen thousand dollars and made a cash payment of three thousand dollars, all the money he had. He gave a mortgage to William Armstrong, trustee, for twelve thousand dollars. When the note came due the old gentle- man asked Mr. Short if he could save his farm, as he was unable to raise the money. Mr. Short took hold of the matter and advanced the money out of his own pocket to subdivide and improve the tract. He succeeded in sell- ing twenty-five acres for twelve thousand dollars, with which he lifted the mortgage. He cut the balance into one-acre lots and sold them for enough

667

CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

to pay Mr. Hyer the three thousand which he had invested, and to himself all the money he had advanced in the improvement of the grounds and a commission of twenty-five dollars an acre besides. And above all this' he turned over to Mr. Hyer eighty-five hundred dollars more in cash. It is un- necessary to say that the eastern gentleman was highly pleased with Mr. Short's services. On the west side, between High street and Neil avenue, the land was owned by the Dennison heirs and was subdivided and sold in lots. North of Sixth avenue on each side of High street the land was owned by the Fisher heirs and was subdivided and sold for six hundred to seven hundred dol- lars a lot.

Mr. Short was successful in his real estate deal at Vanceburg, cutting his holdings up into lots and selling them advantageously; but his steamboat was sunk one night and was a total loss, the only losing deal, however, that Mr. Short had in connection with his Kentucky enterprise, and that loss resulted from an accident and could not have been foreseen. He closed up all his Kentucky interests successfully in twenty-one months, which may be taken as a sample of the energy with which, all through life, he has prose- cuted every enterprise which he has undertaken. Before this he had, with Ed. Eaton, cleared nine hundred and sixty acres in Delaware county, Ohio, taking off of the land six thousand cords of railroad wood and working day and night to carry out his contracts. In 1886 he went to Marietta, Ohio, and bought the Marietta Spoke Works of General Warner, a concern which was producing five thousand spokes each working day and which he managed from then until 1891, when he returned to Columbus, where he has since lived and given his attention chiefly to real estate. His home on west Broad street, where he has lived since 1891, is one of the most homelike and hospitable in the city. For eight years he was a member of the city council, representing the old "bloody" ninth ward, and while so serving his fellow townsmen was instru- mental in securing a franchise for the first street railway on the north side, from the viaduct up High street. North High street was then known as the Worthington plank road. Every time a rain fell the planks floated upon the water and it was impossible to drive over it without being covered with mud. At that time there were no buyers for north High street property at thirty dollars a front foot; now it is worth four hundred and five hundred dollars. In 1871 Mr. Short anl E. L. Hinman were members of the council from the old "bloody" ninth ward and were instrumental in introducing an ordinance for the improvement of north High street by asphalting. Prop- erty owners' along the street made a great fight, as they believed it would take all the property was worth to improve the street. Mr. Hinman desired the street preserved as a fine driveway, while Mr. Short wanted the street rail- way extended north and introduced an ordinance in council to that effect. This so enraged the north side residents that those who had elected Mr. Short called upon him in a body to demand his resignation as a member of the council. He told them that he would resign after he had secured the street railway, and not before. A street railway company was then organized with

668

CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

John R. Hughes, John H. Winterbottom, John Smith, John Evans and Mr. Short as principal stockholders. A twenty-five-year franchise was secured by the aid of the south end German councilmen and the road was built from the tunnel to north Columbus. The rolling stock consisted of one car and a horse supplied the motive power; one man constituted the entire running force and cost the company one dollar and a half a day. The road did not pay, but the old down-town company was forced to buy it by the new com- pany putting on a chariot from the court house to the tunnel, making the entire trip from the court house to north Columbus for five cents. These improvements doubled the value of north High street property and caused the first big real estate boom the north side had known. At this same time Mr. Short introduced an ordinance in the council for the widening of north High street to the same width south of the tunnel, but there was such great opposi- tion that the matter was dropped. There were only two small houses to be moved, and had the street been widened at that time, it could have been done at comparatively small expense and would to-day have been worth over two million dollars to the city.

May 1, 1848, Mr. Short married Elizabeth L. Cowen, who was born in London, England, opposite Hyde Park, and came to America when about eighteen years of age. She received a good education in England and was a woman of great force of character and strong convictions and impressed all with her forceful, masterful disposition. Her sons never thought of disobey- ing her. She aided many young men in getting an education, her great idea being education for her own family and also for others as far as her means and influence extended. Her father, Robert Cowen, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and in his day did a large stock business at Dublin, Ireland. Mrs. Short, who was a model wife and mother and an active Methodist, was highly esteemed in society. She died at Columbus in 1896, aged seventy-two years. She bore Mr. Short four sons and two daughters. The daughters and one son died when young.

Professor John T. Short, Mr. Short's eldest son, was born at Galena, Ohio, May 1, 1850. At eleven he entered the preparatory department of the Capital University, at Columbus, and at fourteen he entered the freshman class of the same institution. At the end of the second year he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, to prepare for the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was graduated at seventeen and in 1869 entered Drew Theological Seminary at Madison, New Jersey, where he was graduated in 1871, having completed the three years' course in two years. Before he was twenty-one years old he had published "The Last Gladiatorial Show," an account of Roman life and manners. He took notes of the lectures of Dr. McClintock which formed the basis of the "Encyclopaedia and Myth- (logy of Theological Science," and so well did he do this work that after President McClintock's death, at the request of his executors, Professor Short published them in a book of two hundred pages which was immediately upon appearance prescribed by the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal church for

-- --

669

CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

perusal by young ministers. In 1872 he became pastor of Davidson Chapel, of his donomination at Dayton, Ohio, and later for three years preached in Cin- cinnati. His health failed gradually under stress of this work and he spent a year at Leipsic, Germany. Soon after his return to America he published "The North Americans of Antiquity," an archeological work on which his reputation might safely rest had he done no other work for humanity. In recognition of that great literary and scientific achievement the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred upon him by the College of History of Leipsic, and he was elected corresponding delegate for Ohio to the Institution Ethnographique, Paris, France. Hon. George Bancroft placed the first vol- ume of his History of the United States in Professor Short's hands for criti- cism and revision. Delaware College called Professor Short to its faculty and professor of English language and literature, and in 1879 he was made a member of the faculty of the Ohio State University at Columbus, as professor member of the faculty of the Ohio State University at Columbus, as professor T. Short was a member of the American Antiquarian Society, of the Societé Ethnographique, Paris, France, and of the American Historical Society. He was chosen to write the history of Ohio for the Encyclopaedia Britannica and spent much time and labor on "A Short History of the United States," similar in plan and scope to "Green's History of the English People," but did not live to complete it. Professor J. T. Short wrote many articles for leading magazines and "Ohio," a sketch of industrial and progress, and a "Historical Reference List" for classes in history, adopted by Yale, Cornell and Harvard. He died November II, 1883, in his thirty-fourth year, having lived a life pure and lofty, devoted to work for God and man which will bear fruit to the end of time. He married Miss Ella Critchfield, daughter of the late Hon. L. J. Critchfield, for forty-five years a prominent lawyer of Colum- bus, who worked with him in all his literary labors. His widow, a son and two daughters survive him. His son, John Bancroft Short, is now acquiring an education. His daughter Florence married Professor Bohannan, of the Ohio State University, and his younger daughter, Clara, married H. T. Mc- Cleary, secretary of the Columbus, Ohio, Coffee and Spice Factory.

Sidney Howe Short was born in Columbus, Ohio, October 8, 1851, and was graduated from the Ohio State University in his native city in 1884, and immediately thereafter was called to the Denver University at Denver, Colo- rado, of which Bishop David H. Moore, who recently went to a mission field in China, was president, and remained there five years as vice-president and professor of science. During this period he not only took an active interest in educational matters, but was enterprising and prominent otherwise, es- pecially in the field of electrical development. He discovered a deposit of cement near Denver which proved so valuable that it was adopted by the United States government for use in all its hydraulic works in the west, and with a son of ex-Governor Evans, of Colorado, as a partner, established a cement works at Denver. He also built the first electrical railway in Denver and took out many patents on electrical devices. About 1889 he returned to

670

CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

Columbus and built a short electrical line to the fair grounds, the first electrical road in the city. Then at Huntington, West Virginia, he built a five-mile line to Grandot. From there he went to East St. Louis, Illinois, and built the East St. Louis electric railway. About that time a company under the style of the Short Electric Railway System, was organized at Cleveland, Ohio, and incorporated with a capital of one million dollars. This concern was placed under Mr. Short's management and he was allowed a salary of eight thousand dollars a year and given a large bonus in cash and stock for the use of his system and inventions, one of which was the armature axle now used by all electrical companies. In association with the late Governor Roswell P. Flower, of New York, Professor Short bought the Walker Works at Cleveland, and Professor Short managed the concern as well as its eastern branch at New York, until, in 1888, the enterprise was sold to the Westing- house Company. Professor Short has constructed more that fifty electric rail- ways in the United States and at New York and Boston has built the largest dynamos in the world, one of which is in operation at the Brooklyn bridge. He has taken out one hundred and two patents in England. In 1898 he went to Great Britain and was given a large bonus to erect, at Preston, England, the English Electrical Works, the largest concern of its kind in the world, embrac- ing two immense shop buildings each covering a ground space of nine hun- dred by one hundred and twenty feet, filled with the best machinery, mostly of American manufacture. This great plant. which is revolutioniz- ing electrical business in Europe, was fully described and illustrated in the London Engineer of June 22, 1900. By his inventive genius, his thorough knowledge of electrical construction and great business capacity, inherited from his father, Professor Short has not only accumulated a large fortune, but has placed himself at the head of electrical construction, now one of the world's most important interests. He married Miss Francis H. Morrison, of Colum- bus, a graduate and valedictorian of the Ohio State University, a fine scholar and chemist, who for a year before her marriage was a teacher in the Uni- versity of Cincinnati. Mrs. Short has given much attention to electro-chemical experiments and has rendered no small service to her husband in the develop- ment of his ideas. They have three sons and a daughter, named Henry Mor- rison, Sidney Albert, Frank and Jennette. Professor S. H. Short now has an office at 112 Cannon street, London, England.

Mr. Short's third son is Major Walter Cowen Short, of the Thirty-fifth United States Infantry, now stationed at San Gueld, sixty-five miles from Manila, and acting as governor at that point. Major Short was born at Columbus, Ohio, April 2, 1870, and after acquiring a primary education in the public schools, was for a year a student at Marietta College at Marietta, Ohio. From childhood he manifested a marked interest in military matters and it is not strange that at Marietta he should have become a member of the Third Battalion, Ohio National Guard, or that on returning to Columbus he should have been attached to the staff of General Axline, under Governor Foraker. Two years later he was transferred to the governor's staff and given the rank

671

CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

of colonel. He was entrusted with the responsibility of arranging for the participation of the Ohio troops in a grand review in New York and was prom- inent on the governor's staff on that occasion, and also at the inauguration of President Harrison. He was graduated at the United States military school at Orchard Lake, Michigan, and immediately after his return home was notified of his appointment as professor of military tactics and sword exercise at that institution and served in that capacity one year. At commencement, the regular army officers sent from Washington to conduct the examination commended the excellence of Professor Short's drill and discipline, and when, shortly afterward, a vacancy as second lieutenant occurred in the Sixth Regi- ment, United States Cavalry, stationed at Niobrara, Nebraska, he was, on the recommendation of Colonel Heyl, inspector general of the department, who had seen his work at Orchard Lake, appointed to the place, though there were eighteen hundred applicants for it and he was not one of them. He saw some active service, however, before he joined that command. After having suc- cessfully passed a six days' examination at Washington, he was given a leave of absence for thirty days. At its expiration he reported at Fort Sam Hous- ton, San Antonio, Texas. The officers were busy with a court martial and he was given charge of the drill work of the post. Within a week the Garcia trouble broke out on the Rio Grande and he was ordered to duty there with two troops under command of a captain. Within a fortnight he was given command of these troops and he led them until there was no further demand for their services on the frontier, participating in several engagements and taking some prisoners. Then, after a brief leave of absence, he joined the Sixth Cavalry, commanded by Colonel D. S. Gordon, at Fort Niobrara, Nebraska, and was placed in command of a company of Indian troops number- ing sixty. In 1893, during the strike at Chicago, the Sixth was on duty there and Lieutenant Short served on the staff of Colonel Gordon. The regiment went from Chicago to Fort Meyer, near Washington, and when Colonel Gor- don retired .and Colonel Somers assumed command, Lieutenant Short was appointed to his staff and served upon it until the outbreak of the Spanish war. Troop A, under Lieutenant Short, acquired great notoriety in Wash- ington by its rough-rider drill, which equaled, if it did not surpass, that of the most expert Cossacks. He went with the troop to Tampa, Florida, and was there appointed assistant adjutant general and his appointment was confirmed by the senate, but he declined the honor in order to go to the front. At San Juan Hill, Colonel Somers was made brigadier general and Lieutenant Short was made acting captain of Troop A, Sixth Cavalry, which led the charge. Before Lieutenant Short reached the hill his horse was shot under him, but he went forward on foot and was among the first on the hill. Though he was shot three times, one ball entering his side and passing out near the spine, suffering one flesh wound in the arm and another wound in the wrist, he pressed for- ward over the breastwork and then fell. A picture in the London Illustrated News of August 20, 1898, shows Lieutenant Short being carried off the field by comrades who did not believe he would recover. He was sent to Key

672

CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

West, Florida, but in ten days he was well enough to steal away from the hospital and rejoin his command at Santiago, Cuba. His three wounds healed up nicely. He was not sick a day, and when the regiment reached New York he was about the only officer who was in good health. He attributes his rapid and almost phenomenal recovery to the fact that, while he is a lover of a good cigar, he never drinks intoxicating liquors, and it may be added that he is an abstainer from coffee also. He was promoted to be first lieutenant and a little later was brevetted major for bravery at San Juan. He was sent to Fort Reilly, Kansas, thence back to San Antonio, Texas, and thence to Santiago, Cuba. In command of one hundred men of the Tenth Cavalry, he went a hundred miles up the Cuban coast and was soon ordered to take his troop fifty miles inland to the interior at Beymer. He was appointed governor of that district and captured and drove out the gangs of robbers who had long infested it, hanging and otherwise killing thirty-seven of them, cleaned up the capital city, established schools for four hundred and fifty children, put up telegraph lines and otherwise improved the road to the coast. He believes Cuba a country of the greatest promise and predicts for it a wonderful future, now that it has been emancipated from Spanish tyranny and robbery. After the successful performance of this service he was ordered to Vancouver Bar- racks, in Washington, as major of the Thirty-fifth United States Volunteer Infantry. He took over to Manila, in three ships, twenty-one hundred men, thirteen hundred and twenty-five men and officers formed the Thirty-fifth Regiment and the remainder were assigned to other regiments to fill vacancies. He has been in several engagements in the Philippines and has acquitted him- self gallantly and been fully equal to all responsibilities that have devolved upon him. One of the most expert swordsmen in the army, he has met and van- quished all the professional saber fighters' who have appeared in the United States in his time, including the famous Captain Duncan Ross, and in every combat he has faced his opponent without a mask, and has never yet faced one who would meet him with face likewise unprotected. He has a national reputation also as a rough rider and polo player.

Mr. John Short is now in his seventy-fifth year and is so well preserved that he does not appear to be more than sixty. He has recently returned from a visit to his son in England and is hoping for his younger son's early return from the Philippines. He takes a lively interest in all public affairs and gives all necessary attention to his important business interests and is held high in the esteem of a large circle of acquaintances. -

WILLIAM B. McCORMICK.

William B. McCormick belongs to a family that may be said to be dis- tinctly American, both in its lineal and collateral branches, for, through many generations, his ancestry have been residents of the new world. The first of the name in America was George McCormick, who served as an officer in the British army many years prior to the war of the Revolution. He was

673

CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

of Scotch ancestry, but was a native of the north of Ireland. Resigning his commission, he located in northern Virginia, and when the financial stand- ing of the country was at low ebb he loaned money to the continental con- gress; but when fire destroyed the capitol at Washington, in 1812, evidences of the loan were lost and the family were, therefore, never reimbursed.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 81

Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1156

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1156